warehouse13fandomcom-20200222-history
Harry Houdini's Wallet
A wallet belonging to Harry Houdini is kept at Warehouse 13. Background The wallet causes "ghosts" to haunt a person. Before Houdini died, he made a pact with his wife, Bess, that if he could, he would return and give her a message from the other side (a coded message only the two knew). For 10 years after he died Bess held seances, waiting for him to return. Once the 10 years passed, she gave it up after no contact from him. The Wallet was acquired on 3 November 1926 by Agent Pocklinton, and possesses the properties of "charonic transfer." The Wallet has a habit of trying to escape storage and temporarily succeeded in 2009 when agent Myka Bering was assigned to the Warehouse; the item was found under Myka's bed at the Bed and Breakfast by Leena, and returned to Arthur Nielsen for restorage. This artifact, and a few others like it, have caused Artie to request screens for the shelves every year for a decade. The label near the wallet reads: :Acquisition: November 3, 1926 :Agent: Pocklinton, S. Code: 2139-5 :Shelf: L-27 :Block DX4-119 Usage The wallet is currently stored away but jumped into Myka's bag and brought back Sam to haunt her (as far as she was concerned). The artifact apparently developed an interest in Myka and even after it was stored back in Warehouse it continued to bother her with visions of Sam. It is possible her unresolved issues over Sam's death were what drew it to Myka in the first place. Real World Connections Harry Houdini's will specified that all of his props and effects be burned upon the death of his brother. His brother, however, sold the majority of the effects to an enthusiast, Sidney Hollis Radner, who in turn put them up for auction in 2004. The wallet was clearly obtained far prior to that time. Houdini died on 31 October 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. According to the label on the warehouse shelf, the wallet was acquired a mere three days after Houdini's passing. Charonic Transfer refers to Charon, the Greek ferryman of the dead. This could mean that the living could also be transported to the land of the dead. Trivia * In the original Pilot script, this wallet was not specified to belong to Harry Houdini. In addition, its effects were slightly different in that it could summon a corporeal and sentient ghost capable of interacting with physical objects whenever opened (although whether it was truly a ghost or a manifestation from Myka's mind was never officially established).http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Warehouse_13_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf ** In the original script, Myka used the wallet to summon Sam Martino's ghost more than once, and the afterlife (or at least Hell) was mentioned to exist. As Myka did not return the wallet at the end of the script, it could be inferred that the wallet would have been used throughout the series, making Sam a recurring character. Appearances * "Pilot" References Category:Artifacts Category:Psychological Artifacts Category:Season 1 Artifacts